“I’m not calling to speak with her,” he said. “I’m calling to see if you would like to go to dinner with me tomorrow night. I’ll come by about six-thirty. What sort of food do you like?” he asked even before I had answered. I could tell he was very nervous and was just trying to get it all said. I was too embarrassed to explain that we weren’t permitted to go on dates with college-age boys unless we had special permission from our parents. Thinking that suddenly gave me the idea.
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” he said, laughing. “What do you say?”
“Give me your phone number, and I’ll call you back to let you know.”
“Sure,” he said, and gave it to me.
As soon as he hung up, I called my father. Mrs. Dobson said he was out to dinner, but she would give him the message to call me. I waited an hour and then grew too impatient and called his cell phone. When he answered, I could hear he was in a busy restaurant.
“Semantha? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, Daddy. I want to go out with a boy who is in college, and Mrs. Hathaway wouldn’t approve of that without your approval first, so if you can call her . . .”
“A college boy?”
“Yes, Daddy. He’s very nice.”
From the muffled sound, I realized he was putting his hand over the mouthpiece and talking to someone.
“Where are you going with this college boy?” he asked.
“To dinner, Daddy. It’s a dinner date.”
“I see. Well, I’m sure you now know to be careful, Semantha.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“I’ll call Mrs. Hathaway first thing in the morning.”
“Please don’t forget,” I said.
“I don’t think I forget things yet, Semantha,” he said, more for whomever he was with than for me, I thought. I heard a woman’s laughter.
“Thanks, Daddy.”
“Right. Take care,” he said.
After he hung up, I called Ethan and told him I would go out with him. Ellie wasn’t talking about him anymore, and pleasing her didn’t matter to me much anymore, either.
“I guess I like Italian food the best when I go to restaurants,” I said. Cassie never had. She’d always thought the food was too blah or too spicy.
“Perfect. I have just the place. I’m looking forward to seeing you again.”
“Yes, me too,” I said.
Even though I didn’t care about Ellie becoming upset, I didn’t want to tell her about my date just yet. I was happy that Ethan had ended the call before she returned. When she did, I said nothing. She was talking now about a different boy she had met at the fraternity party, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to get out this weekend. She couldn’t use me again as an excuse, and as it turned out, her teachers had complained to Mrs. Hathaway even more about her grades. I could see the writing on the wall as Friday drew near. I held back as long as I could, and then on Friday afternoon, I announced my date and said I didn’t have to be deceitful about it, either.
She stood there staring at me for a long moment in shock.
“You had your father call Mrs. Hathaway?”
“Yes.”
“Great. Now she’s going to wonder how you met him, and she might figure out that we violated her rules.”
“I don’t think she’ll want to do anything to discourage my socializing, Ellie. Remember how she called you into her office to discuss me?”